,,,While it is true that gifted students need the 'freedom' to brainstorm
and come up with creative solutions they also yearn for a mentorship
relationship with their teacher(s). We can not assume for example, that
because a student wants to do it their own way, that that is enough. ,,,,

San D--
You are right, of course. And on the other hand, there is a difference in
gifted students. The kid who made the statements about "nobody asked how he
wanted to do things" was a highly self aware student who did indeed know
what he wanted to learn--not just do. He did an RNA project for his 7th
grade Science Fair and built a working analog computer for the 8th, had
permission to use a neighboring college's computer lab anytime he wished as
a HS freshman-- of course, this was some 30 years ago.

He was lucky, also, that he had a wonderful HS science teacher, himself a
very gifted person, who told us that half the time he didn't know what this
kid was talking about. He also set him down and gave him a good talking to
when the kid was about to flunk English because he was spending all his time
on what he was discovering in science.

The mentor relationship can be critical, but it seems to me that its value
can also depend on
learning where the kid is and where he wants to go and THEN providing the
kind of
guidance you are talking about.

>>So often gifted kids will dismiss what they
do as minimal because they have been 'deemed' gifted...you know the kid
that draws well, feels that it is just something they know how to
do...

I can attest to that--I was past thirty before it ever entered my head that
I could be an "artist". I always had an A in "art" (such as it was) but I
had an A in everything else--and an A didn't mean a thing....
The one thing I and my siblings never got was a sense that what we were was
special, rather than just different--and being different was often a very
uncomfortable thing to be.
In a couple days (when company leaves), I will post on my personal page (a
bit too long for here) a paper I wrote in a creative writing class for
teachers a few years ago--"Help! I got another A" --that anyone interested
can check out. Will let you know when I get this done....

Your class sounds great--wish I had had something like that.....It has been
interesting--as a retired senior citizen, in a largely senior setting for
the last two years, I have gotten a great deal more validation for my own
peculiar (and I do use that word advisedly <G>) brand of giftedness than I
ever did in my years of teaching, being a mother, pastor's wife and several
dozen other things....